Daily Times

Radicalisation of Pakistani students in universities, colleges and religious schools has become a big challenge for the government and its administrative machinery. A half-religious and half-western education system and poverty have compelled the poorer parents in southern Punjab to send their children to sectarian religious schools. The country exhibits cancerous symptoms that point to high potential for youth radicalisation in more than 120 universities, 1,370 colleges and 25,000 religious schools, which now present a big security challenge for the law enforcement agencies.

Extremist infrastructure, widespread networks of militant groups and poor governance have put the national security of the country in danger. A Taliban victory in Afghanistan in 1996 diverted the attention of young Pakistani students from various colleges and schools to the business of dying in order to kill. The Urdu-medium public schools that serve more than 70 percent of the poorer students play a vital role in their radicalisation. In southern Punjab, a majority of students in these schools come from poor families.

Poverty and the lack of freedom of expression are major factors responsible for the growing number of radicals. Politicisation of religion, the influence of Arab religious culture in society, and the institutionalisation of sectarianism have given rise to a new form of terrorism. Pakistan has entered the wrong process of socio-political transformation.

The madrassa culture in Pakistan has created tensions between Muslims and the followers of other religions. Europe and the west view Pakistani Islam as a global threat. Jihad against the Ahmedis, Shia Muslims, war among Sunnis, jihad against the Zikris, Hindus and Sikhs and the recent brutal killings of Christians in Punjab present a transmogrified aspect of Islam. These groups have brought isolation and shame upon Pakistan. Emergence of the Punjabi Taliban in southern Punjab is a big threat, and the lack of a sound and well-connected administrative structure has compounded the problem.

The term Punjabi Taliban has come to be widely used for militants in recent times, but the militancy of the Punjabi Taliban has long been a destabilising factor for civil society. Earlier, recruits from Punjab were used for jihad in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Some Punjab-based political leaders and police officials, at the behest of their political bosses, tried to blame the attacks on FATA-based Taliban or on Indian agents, but it is now generally accepted that there are some extremists who belong to Punjab. The Punjabi Taliban are more lethal than the so-called Pashtun Taliban, as they carry out attacks that need much higher levels of training and coordination. Till analysts recognised the existence of the Punjabi Taliban, these extremist groups were termed as splinter groups of sectarian organisations.

Intelligence sources estimated around 5,000 extremists from southern and northern Punjab to have moved to South Waziristan in 2005, while some 10,000 newly recruited young members of the Punjabi Taliban networks returned to the province.

Qandeel Siddique’s DIIS Report for 2010 about the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has warned, “The growing number of US drone strikes in Pakistan’s border areas, and expanding US presence and influence inside Pakistan has further aggravated the jihadists — not only in the northwest of the country, but also in Punjab.” The jihadists, Qandeel says, accuse the government of Punjab of facilitating the US ‘takeover’ of Pakistan.

The newly established military wing of the group, Asian Tigers, is based in Waziristan. Its training camps prepare Punjabi militants for war against Pakistani security forces in southern Punjab. The group killed the father of the Afghan Taliban, Colonel Imam, and former ISI officer Khalid Khwaja.

The undemocratic political culture in Pakistan is considered to be another factor of radicalisation. The sectarian and extremist culture has promoted intolerance and violence. An extremist bodyguard of Salmaan Taseer Shaheed, Mumtaz Qadri, killed him in Islamabad. He viewed Taseer as a blasphemer for having opposed Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. This murder exposed the rising influence of the Punjabi Taliban in government departments.

War against the Soviet Union created a support network in Pakistan for armed extremist groups. These newly trained militants and their masters intelligently cashed in on the increasing radicalisation of Pakistani society, which took place in the 1980s and 1990s. The process of radicalisation continued as militant groups shifted their focus towards Kashmir. Unfortunately, Pakistani society has developed both internal and external factors of radicalisation. The external, experts say, might be the US and NATO presence in Afghanistan and their drone attacks inside Pakistan’s tribal belts. After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, jihadists continued to flow into Pakistani Punjab.

Throughout the 1990s, Pakistan’s militant groups trained over 25,000 extremists in terror camps. In his book, Secret Affairs, Mark Curtis says that the Pakistani army trained about 60,000 militants for the Kashmir jihad, but sources in the Pakistan Army denied it. In 2010, while talking to a private TV channel, former president General Musharraf admitted the army’s role in recruitment of jihadis.

Research and official reports by the government of Pakistan have now shown the strong presence of Punjabi Taliban networks across Punjab province, specifically in southern Punjab. Pakistani intelligence circles are anxious about the feudal culture, illiteracy and poverty that provide fertile ground for the Punjabi Taliban’s terror operations. The province’s 20,000 extremist and religious schools have the potential to convert the southern districts into jihadist nurseries.

The writer is the author of Civil War and the Partition of Afghanistan and Punjabi Taliban. He can be reached at zai.musakhan222@gmail.com